The Delivery 2013

Wow! What a delivery! I apologize that this has taken me so long to post, but it’s done. Here’s how our delivery went down!

Our delivery went very well this year. Once again, this year, we collected roughly 1500 boxes of Tastykakes and over $10k! It was another successful year. Thank you all for your support!

The ride began on Saturday, October 12, 2013. Dave and Bob began their 3 day, 200 mile bicycle journey from Bethlehem, PA to Bethesda, MD. The weather held out for them. It was a bit muddy on the bike trail on day 2, but it wasn’t terrible. They were tired and a bit sore, but they arrived at their destination safe and sound, and in great time too.

Dave and Bob ready to start their 200 mile ride!

Courtesy of Kym. On their way!

On Monday, October 14, 2013, Linda, my husband, and I drove down to Bethesda, along with Tom and Gannon and our trailer of Tastykakes. We met up at our hotel with Dave and Bob. My husband and I finished writing the value of the gift cards on them and then we got ready to head out to dinner.

One of over $8k worth of gift cards!

We got ready and walked to our traditional pre-delivery dinner location: The Tavern at Fire Station 1! We had a great time and good food. It was a nice way to celebrate another successful collection of Tastykakes to support our troops.

We woke up at a decent hour on Tuesday, October 15, 2013, to get ready for our 3rd delivery of Tastykakes and gift cards to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. One we arrived at Walter Reed, we headed straight for the loading dock so we could unload hundreds and hundreds of Tastykakes. We had a lot of help from some wonderful civilian and military employees of the hospital.

Trailer full of Tastykakes!

Unloading…

Lots of Tastykakes!

Even more…

Unloaded and waiting to transport them into the building.

Once we had all of the Tastykakes unloaded and on the loading dock, we put them on dollies and transported them to the lobby where the events staff at Walter Reed already had a table set up for us. We were set up right across from the Warrior Cafe. There was also another table set up in the lobby with a birthday cake for the US Navy’s 238th birthday (Happy Belated Birthday, US Navy)! We hung up our banner that Kari made for us this year on our table, got the gift cards out, the Tastykake t-shirts, and we started to unbox a bunch of cases of Tastykakes and set them up on the table.

Setting up!

Hanging up the banner.

Setting up our table.

Once we were set up, we started handing out our donated items to wounded warriors and troops who walked by. It was nice to hand out Tastykakes and interact with many of the men and women who serve and sacrificed so much for our country. We had many come by who never heard of Tastykakes or who heard of them but never tried them. We had some come by who loved Tastykakes and found their favorites. We even had a few boxes of PowerBars donated this year. Those went very quickly, as many of these wounded warriors wanted to watch what they eat and stay in shape. The gift cards were extremely popular as well.

We were set up from 10am until 1:30pm, so we hit the lunch time rush right in front of the Warrior Cafe. We were also set up when the Navy had their cake cutting ceremony for the Navy’s 238th birthday. So, we received quite a bit of exposure. We even had some wounded warriors and their families coming back for more Tastykakes because they love them so much!

A nice note from the person who donated this box of Tastykakes.

Gannon with Tastykakes and Tastykake t-shirts!

Handing out Tastykakes.

Some of the many boxes of Tastykakes that were donated.

Our set up.

We passed out a lot of Tastykakes, but we still had a lot more in boxes!

One of our signs.

Another nice note from someone who donated Tastykakes!

I enjoyed finding these boxes of Tastykakes with notes written on them for the wounded warriors. How sweet.

By the end of our time at Walter Reed, we still had a ton of Tastykakes left to hand out, so with the help of the events staff, we filled up our table again with Tastykakes – sky high – and left them out for wounded warriors to take as they passed through the area. We made sure the gift cards were handed out to wounded warriors and their families. We hope the Tastykakes were thoroughly enjoyed!

Our table stacked sky high with Tastykakes.

We had a wonderful day. It was humbling and moving to be able to hand out Tastykakes to the many men and women who serve our country. The Walter Reed staff was fantastic to work with. It was awesome to interact with so many service men and women. We had a fun. It was a very good day.

We are very grateful for the experience we had and we are very grateful to all who serve and sacrifice for our country. We are thrilled to be able to show our appreciation and gratitude in a small way, but this can’t begin to explain how grateful we truly are to everyone serving our country, past and present.

Thank you to Walter Reed for being very accommodating!

Thank YOU for all your support and donations to make 2013 another fantastic delivery!

and a BIG THANK YOU to all our service men and women who sacrifice so much for us!